Silicone elastomers have been bonded to various substrates by coating the substrates with various silanes such as alkylacyloxysilanes, alkylalkoxysilanes, alkoxyacyloxysilanes or vinyltriacyloxysilanes prior to the application of the crosslinkable organopolysiloxanes.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,420 to Harper discloses applying a silane of the formula RSi(OZ).sub.3, where R is a phenyl or an aliphatic hydrocarbon having less than 4 carbon atoms and Z is an acyl radical having less than 4 carbon atoms to a masonry substrate and thereafter applying a room temperature curable silicone rubber to the coated substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,800 to Plueddemann discloses a method for bonding a room temperature vulcanizable organopolysiloxane to a thermoplastic resin by coating the thermoplastic resin with a silylated polymethylmethacrylate bonding agent and then applying a vulcanizable organopolysiloxane to the coated thermoplastic resin.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,505,099 to Neuroth discloses bonding a vulcanizable organopolysiloxane composition obtained from the polymerization of organic monomers in the presence of an organopolysiloxane and a free radical generator to a metal substrate by first applying a zinc dust primer to the metal substrate, then applying an acyloxysilane to the zinc dust primer and thereafter applying the vulcanizable organopolysiloxane composition to the coated substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,938 to Bingham discloses a method for bonding silicone elastomers to a porous substrate, which comprises coating the substrate with a composition obtained from the reaction of an acrylate with an acryloxyalkylalkoxysilane in the presence of a free radical generator and thereafter applying an organopolysiloxane which is crosslinkable at ambient temperature.
One object of this invention is to provide a method for improving the adhesion of organopolysiloxane elastomers to substrates. Another object of this invention is to provide a method for improving the adhesion of organopolysiloxanes which are crosslinked at room temperature to solid substrates. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for improving the adhesion of organopolysiloxane elastomers to substrates which are exposed to water. A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for improving the adhesion of organopolysiloxane elastomers to substrates which are exposed to water containing living organisms.